Hi Guys
Here are some sites that the following information was gleaned from, don't just take my word for it...check it out!!!!
http://www.speedlabs.org
http://www.dvd-recordable.org
http://www.cdrinfo.com
http://www.dvdrrw.org
The Tech:
So, which writer is right for you? These days, it has come down to a battle of a few electronics giants, with several other brands, once popular, falling by the way-side. Following is a list of drives that are deemed worth considering, if only for the fact that they are readily available to you, the DVD recording consumer.
i. BenQ
ii. LG Electronics
iii. LiteOn
iv. NEC
v. Pioneer
vi. Plextor
These six companies represent the current market trends in availability and popularity of drive. They are not listed in order of preference or otherwise.
The complexities of book type settings and media quality:
For the purposes of this discussion, we will only refer to a drive as Book type setting capable or not.
Drive Scoring System:
There is an awful lot to understanding what makes a drive “good” . To really understand it and appreciate the finer complexities of the topic, you would need a good 20 pages. With this in mind, I decided to use a composite rating system out of a potential 100 marks. This composite is comprised of:
• Media compatibility
• Ability to READ
• Ability to WRITE
• Write QUALITY
• Special features
• Drive manufacturing standards (build quality)
• Reliability under variable conditions
• Firmware support and upgradeability
The methodologies used to test these aspects of the hardware range from trivial to quite complex. I suggest the use of http://www.speedlabs.org for further reading on the matter.
The Drives – Pro’s, Con’s and all the rest:
The intention of this section is to clearly outline the advantages and disadvantages of each brand of drive, with their respective current model. This will end with a score x/100 for the purpose of overall summation.
--------------------------------------
LG Electronics:
Current Model: LG-GSA-4163B
Book type setting: Yes
Pros:
* LG are well known for their CD-R write strategy and respectable performance to dual layer media. The drive is quiet and well made.
Cons:
• LG drives in their current guise may use a P-CAV strategy for writing 16x media, but towards the end of the burn, write quality drops dramatically.
• LG drives tend to have less than perfect media matching capabilities to such media as LONGTEN01 and AML (all the worst media money can buy!)
Overall: 70/100
--------------------------------------
LiteOn:
Current Model: SOHW-1673S
Book type setting: Yes
Made famous in their CD-R writing days as the “tweakers” drives, a zebra and his friends did the same, for the DVD writing era. All these things aside, LiteOn have recently had a decline in the quality of drives, becoming the least preferable for serious burning fanatics.
Pros:
• Amazing tweak ability. If you can imagine it, we can mod it!
• Superior CD-R write quality and speed to any other DVD writer on the market
• Very hard to damage from internal firmware flashing
• Ok for 1:1 games backups!
Cons:
• Potentially the worst write quality on the market currently
• Very poor media matching capability – this is one picky little drive
• Build quality is declining quickly, as reports suggest
Overall: 55/100
--------------------------------------
BenQ Electronics:
Current Model: DW-1620A
Book type setting: Yes
A surprise to the world – currently tearing away at the middle market and fighting for a place at the very top, BenQ are surprising us all with their capability to make a quality DVD writer which can stand up to even the Japanese tech. giants.
Pros:
• Great speed when writing to +R media! Z-CAV capabilities are working well
• DL Support is getting better with each firmware revision
• Wonderful read speed and ripping capabilities
Cons:
• -R media is less well accommodated, with write strategies needing work
• Several firmware upgrades will be required to compete with top level writers
Overall: 78/100
--------------------------------------
Pioneer Electronics:
Current Model: DVR-109/A09
Book type setting: Yes
Widely regarded as the most powerful force in the DVD writing industry, Pioneer stand in a league of their own. Impeccable write quality and media matching capabilities have kept Pioneer consistently a market leader since the inception of desktop DVD recording. The DVR-109 is still in it's infancy, but already it shows great promise - to overtake its father, the DVR-108, as the most popular writer in the world.
Pros:
• Fastest DL writing capabilities in existence. 6x!
• Supports DVD-R DL, the upcoming “super standard”
• Highest write quality of any drive on the market
• Highest media compatibility of any drive on the market
• New P-CAV strategies make 16x writing < 5:50 for a full DVD-R.
• Stunning firmware support! A new firmware every month or two!
Cons:
• Book type setting is convoluted. Requires the Piodata kernel and firmware
• Less than perfect CD-R write quality and strategies
• Very new hardware and firmware revision cycle. It will be another firmware revision before the drive has over-speeding capabilities to many media the DVR-108 did.
Overall: 93/100
Postscript to 109 - The differences between the 108 and the 109
I have had the question asked of me - what are the differences between the DVR-108 and the DVR-109?
Several! As follows:
* The DVR-109 supports up to 8x writing to -RW and +RW media, using the 1.17 firmware. The DVR-108 only supported 4X max.
* The DVR-109 is capable of writing DVD-R DL or DUAL LAYER media too! Not to be confused with the 108's capability of writing DVD+R DL or DOUBLE LAYER media.
* The DVR-109 can write DVD+R DL and -R DL media at 6x. The 108 could only write DVD+R DL media at a max of 4x
* The DVR-109 is a physically smaller drive by about 4-5cm in depth!
* The DVR-109 implements P-CAV or Pure/Partial Constant Angular Velocity writing to 8x and upwards rated media. This equates to better write strategies and faster recording times.
* Audibly, the 109 is *ever so slightly* louder, as a result of the slightly faster write speeds.
* Currently, DVR-Flash does NOT work on R9 class hardware.
--------------------------------------
NEC Electronics:
Current Model: NEC ND-3520A
Book type setting: Yes
NEC has fought a battle with Pioneer for the top spot of “write quality king” for almost a year now. NEC’s build quality and capabilities make it a writer for the serious user and novice user alike.
Pros:
• Very respectable 4X DL writing capability
• CD-R writing is amongst the fastest on the market, next to LiteOn
• Wide media matching capabilities make the drive readily usable in the event of a “quality media” drought
• Command set v4 supports DVD-ROM book type setting to DVD+R, +RW and +R DL
Cons:
• VERY poor firmware support. Do not expect regular updates!
• No –R DL standards support is planned
Overall: 88/100
--------------------------------------
Plextor Electronics:
Current Model: PX-716A
Book type setting: Yes
For many years, Plextor was the king of premium write quality and capabilities, designed for the power user in mind. Skipping forward to 2005, Plextor no longer represent the upper echelon of quality. Oftentimes, people will buy the product simply because it is a “Plextor Premium” device.
Pros:
• First drive to support –R DL, along with the DVR-109!
• VERY impressive and comprehensive sets of tools available with the drive, including “Plextools Professional”
• On media the drive is well suited to, it performs VERY well – potentially, better than any of the competition
• Great reading capabilities!
Cons:
• VERY expensive for very little return
• Low media matching capability to some of the more exotic Med’s
• Generally, not a fast writer, compared to the current crop of 16x recorders
• Interface problems plague the SATA variant of the device. AVOID
Overall: 63/100
:cheers -PV
Here are some sites that the following information was gleaned from, don't just take my word for it...check it out!!!!
http://www.speedlabs.org
http://www.dvd-recordable.org
http://www.cdrinfo.com
http://www.dvdrrw.org
The Tech:
So, which writer is right for you? These days, it has come down to a battle of a few electronics giants, with several other brands, once popular, falling by the way-side. Following is a list of drives that are deemed worth considering, if only for the fact that they are readily available to you, the DVD recording consumer.
i. BenQ
ii. LG Electronics
iii. LiteOn
iv. NEC
v. Pioneer
vi. Plextor
These six companies represent the current market trends in availability and popularity of drive. They are not listed in order of preference or otherwise.
The complexities of book type settings and media quality:
For the purposes of this discussion, we will only refer to a drive as Book type setting capable or not.
Drive Scoring System:
There is an awful lot to understanding what makes a drive “good” . To really understand it and appreciate the finer complexities of the topic, you would need a good 20 pages. With this in mind, I decided to use a composite rating system out of a potential 100 marks. This composite is comprised of:
• Media compatibility
• Ability to READ
• Ability to WRITE
• Write QUALITY
• Special features
• Drive manufacturing standards (build quality)
• Reliability under variable conditions
• Firmware support and upgradeability
The methodologies used to test these aspects of the hardware range from trivial to quite complex. I suggest the use of http://www.speedlabs.org for further reading on the matter.
The Drives – Pro’s, Con’s and all the rest:
The intention of this section is to clearly outline the advantages and disadvantages of each brand of drive, with their respective current model. This will end with a score x/100 for the purpose of overall summation.
--------------------------------------
LG Electronics:
Current Model: LG-GSA-4163B
Book type setting: Yes
Pros:
* LG are well known for their CD-R write strategy and respectable performance to dual layer media. The drive is quiet and well made.
Cons:
• LG drives in their current guise may use a P-CAV strategy for writing 16x media, but towards the end of the burn, write quality drops dramatically.
• LG drives tend to have less than perfect media matching capabilities to such media as LONGTEN01 and AML (all the worst media money can buy!)
Overall: 70/100
--------------------------------------
LiteOn:
Current Model: SOHW-1673S
Book type setting: Yes
Made famous in their CD-R writing days as the “tweakers” drives, a zebra and his friends did the same, for the DVD writing era. All these things aside, LiteOn have recently had a decline in the quality of drives, becoming the least preferable for serious burning fanatics.
Pros:
• Amazing tweak ability. If you can imagine it, we can mod it!
• Superior CD-R write quality and speed to any other DVD writer on the market
• Very hard to damage from internal firmware flashing
• Ok for 1:1 games backups!
Cons:
• Potentially the worst write quality on the market currently
• Very poor media matching capability – this is one picky little drive
• Build quality is declining quickly, as reports suggest
Overall: 55/100
--------------------------------------
BenQ Electronics:
Current Model: DW-1620A
Book type setting: Yes
A surprise to the world – currently tearing away at the middle market and fighting for a place at the very top, BenQ are surprising us all with their capability to make a quality DVD writer which can stand up to even the Japanese tech. giants.
Pros:
• Great speed when writing to +R media! Z-CAV capabilities are working well
• DL Support is getting better with each firmware revision
• Wonderful read speed and ripping capabilities
Cons:
• -R media is less well accommodated, with write strategies needing work
• Several firmware upgrades will be required to compete with top level writers
Overall: 78/100
--------------------------------------
Pioneer Electronics:
Current Model: DVR-109/A09
Book type setting: Yes
Widely regarded as the most powerful force in the DVD writing industry, Pioneer stand in a league of their own. Impeccable write quality and media matching capabilities have kept Pioneer consistently a market leader since the inception of desktop DVD recording. The DVR-109 is still in it's infancy, but already it shows great promise - to overtake its father, the DVR-108, as the most popular writer in the world.
Pros:
• Fastest DL writing capabilities in existence. 6x!
• Supports DVD-R DL, the upcoming “super standard”
• Highest write quality of any drive on the market
• Highest media compatibility of any drive on the market
• New P-CAV strategies make 16x writing < 5:50 for a full DVD-R.
• Stunning firmware support! A new firmware every month or two!
Cons:
• Book type setting is convoluted. Requires the Piodata kernel and firmware
• Less than perfect CD-R write quality and strategies
• Very new hardware and firmware revision cycle. It will be another firmware revision before the drive has over-speeding capabilities to many media the DVR-108 did.
Overall: 93/100
Postscript to 109 - The differences between the 108 and the 109
I have had the question asked of me - what are the differences between the DVR-108 and the DVR-109?
Several! As follows:
* The DVR-109 supports up to 8x writing to -RW and +RW media, using the 1.17 firmware. The DVR-108 only supported 4X max.
* The DVR-109 is capable of writing DVD-R DL or DUAL LAYER media too! Not to be confused with the 108's capability of writing DVD+R DL or DOUBLE LAYER media.
* The DVR-109 can write DVD+R DL and -R DL media at 6x. The 108 could only write DVD+R DL media at a max of 4x
* The DVR-109 is a physically smaller drive by about 4-5cm in depth!
* The DVR-109 implements P-CAV or Pure/Partial Constant Angular Velocity writing to 8x and upwards rated media. This equates to better write strategies and faster recording times.
* Audibly, the 109 is *ever so slightly* louder, as a result of the slightly faster write speeds.
* Currently, DVR-Flash does NOT work on R9 class hardware.
--------------------------------------
NEC Electronics:
Current Model: NEC ND-3520A
Book type setting: Yes
NEC has fought a battle with Pioneer for the top spot of “write quality king” for almost a year now. NEC’s build quality and capabilities make it a writer for the serious user and novice user alike.
Pros:
• Very respectable 4X DL writing capability
• CD-R writing is amongst the fastest on the market, next to LiteOn
• Wide media matching capabilities make the drive readily usable in the event of a “quality media” drought
• Command set v4 supports DVD-ROM book type setting to DVD+R, +RW and +R DL
Cons:
• VERY poor firmware support. Do not expect regular updates!
• No –R DL standards support is planned
Overall: 88/100
--------------------------------------
Plextor Electronics:
Current Model: PX-716A
Book type setting: Yes
For many years, Plextor was the king of premium write quality and capabilities, designed for the power user in mind. Skipping forward to 2005, Plextor no longer represent the upper echelon of quality. Oftentimes, people will buy the product simply because it is a “Plextor Premium” device.
Pros:
• First drive to support –R DL, along with the DVR-109!
• VERY impressive and comprehensive sets of tools available with the drive, including “Plextools Professional”
• On media the drive is well suited to, it performs VERY well – potentially, better than any of the competition
• Great reading capabilities!
Cons:
• VERY expensive for very little return
• Low media matching capability to some of the more exotic Med’s
• Generally, not a fast writer, compared to the current crop of 16x recorders
• Interface problems plague the SATA variant of the device. AVOID
Overall: 63/100
:cheers -PV